Chapter 3

THE TRIAL

On Wednesday,  Jan. 11, 1984,  the coldest day  of  the year, Johnston and his attorneys, Thomas Tyack and  Robert  Suhr  of  Columbus,  walked  into the courtroom  of the  Hocking  County  Common  Pleas Court.

Temperatures  overnight  had  dropped  to  minus 4 degrees.  Snow  and   ice  had  created  hazardous  driving conditions; yet the courtroom was full.

Johnston had previously waived  his right to a jury trial  and asked  that the  case be  heard before a three-judge panel.

Judge James E. Stilwell of Hocking County presided. Judges  Joseph  Cirigliano  of  Lorain  County  and Michael Corrigan  of Cuyahoga County  completed the  panel.

Prosecuting Attorney  Chris Veidt opened  the trial saying   the   state   would   prove  Johnston  did “willfully   and   purposely,    and   with   prior calculation and  design” kill his  stepdaughter and  her fiancé at his home sometime between 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 4, 1982  and 6:30 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 5^th.

Defense counsel  Tyack contended that  evidence was  only circumstantial.

The court  then recessed so that  all parties could view  the    Johnston  farm   and  the  Hocking River-West Logan area where the body parts had been discovered.

They stayed at Johnston’s snow-covered property for 15 minutes. Johnston, handcuffed, joked with Deputy Bert Clay as the  sheriff and prosecutors discussed  the  case. Then  the  entourage  left for  the West  Logan field.

Overnight  temperatures  had  again  dropped  below zero,  yet  the  courtroom   was  again  packed  to capacity. It was the county’s biggest event in many years.

The   prosecution   called   a   Columbus,  Ohio  TV meteorologist, Jym  Ganahl, as their  first witness. Ganahl described the weather  conditions at the time of the murder and the effect it had had on soil near the river  and cornfield. Because of  heavy rains on  Oct. 7 and Oct. 9,  he believed the body parts found in the cornfield had to have been buried before Oct.   9.

The special prosecutor, Fred Mong, called on Todd’s parents to  testify. Both Schultzes  said they last saw Todd on Oct. 4--the day he disappeared.

Don Schultz said Todd came  to see him in the early afternoon  at the  Logan Fire  Department. Todd was also a volunteer fireman and was planning to attend fire practice at 6:30 p.m.

Sandra Schultz testified Annette  had moved in with the Schultzes in early  August because of “problems at her  home.” On Oct.  4, at about  3:30 p.m., the two young  people went upstairs. At  4 p.m. she saw an upset Annette leave the house. When she told her son that Annette had left  the house, he “jumped up and went after her.” She saw Todd catch up with her and watched them walk toward the Hocking River.

Logan   Police  Chief   Steve  Barron   recalled  a conversation  with  the  Johnstons  at  the  police station on Oct. 4.  Johnston was concerned that the missing teenagers were putting  him and his wife in a bad  light. He testified  Johnston told him  that Todd had a violent temper and that he was trying to dominate Annette.

Barron said he put Mowery  in charge of the Oct. 14 search  operation, but  ordered him  to stay within the department’s jurisdiction—the  area located on the  north  side  of  the  river  near the railroad trestle.

Sheriff    Jones   testified    the   heads   were  buried—covered with eight inches of soil. He said he had received the initial missing persons report from  Don  Schultz  on  Oct.  5,  but  because the  missing  teenagers  lived  in  Logan,  Schultz was referred to the Logan police department.

Searching  near  the  railroad  trestle, sheriff’s deputies discovered a male torso lodged amidst the river’s  debris. A  female torso  was later  found just past the trestle.

Annette’s  torso  was  identified  by  information supplied  by Dale  Johnston. He  indicated Annette had a  scar on her  leg, while Sarah  said Annette wore  dental  braces.   When  Jones  informed  the Johnstons that only the  torsos had been found, he was told there might be a scar on her back.

The  search  for  body  parts  started  during the pre-dawn hours of Oct.  16. Late that afternoon, a  sock  containing human  flesh and  hair was found. Jones, Jim, body parts, cornfield, red staining Then a plastic feed sack was discovered, Jones said, in the area between the cornfield and the bridge—an area that showed red staining. Inside the cornfield, areas with “red, crusty substances” were discovered.

Jones said he found a spot in the field, free of weeds, which appeared to   be wet.  An object crawling with maggots was sticking out of it. Heads and limbs were found in several similar, clear spots in the cornfield.

Dr. Patrick Fardal, Franklin County’s deputy coroner testified that Schultz had been shot five or six times, while Annette had been shot twice before being dismembered by a “sharp, single blade cutting instrument.”

Schultz’s torso had many similar incisions, he testified. In addition, part of one of his lungs was missing.

All of Annette’s reproductive organs and most of Schultz’s were also missing, although Fardal could not say whether they were cut off separately or came off when the legs were severed.

Herman Henry, an investigator for the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification, criticized both the investigative and interrogative techniques of the county’s law enforcement officials. He had been called to the cornfield after the body parts were discovered.

Under cross-examination, he told the court the body parts had been moved and that the entire area was in disarray.

“People  had  walked  all  over  the  area.” Henry testified that he had told the police that there wasn’t anything he could do because of “damage” to the area and its possible evidence.

He said he later left an interrogation session because “the manner of the interrogation was not what I was used to.” Jim Thompson, a Logan detective, was questioning Johnston at the police station.  Thompson was reported to have told Johnston that he (Thompson) thought Johnston had committed the murders.

Henry told the court   he had given Thompson information, which showed someone else had possibly committed the crimes, but Thompson either rejected the information or chose to ignore it.

On the trial’s third day the spotlight shifted to allegations of nudity within the Johnston home.

Former   police captain   Mowery related several conversations he had had with the Johnstons about Annette and about Todd’s relationship with Dale.

He asked the Johnstons for additional information which could be used to identify Annette’s torso. They told him Annette had a mole at the base of her spine, scars on her back and pimples around the nipples of each breast.  When asked if any photographs   were available   of Annette, the Johnstons gave him “five or six nude pictures of Annette taken when she was 13 years old.”

The photographs included shots of Annette holding a rifle and bandoleer of ammunition; one showing Annette nude from the waist up; and a third one of her lying nude on a blanket.  They were later returned to the defendant, Mowery said.

Johnston told Mowery he had initially liked Todd considering him a member of the family because he was constantly at their home.

But   this familial   relationship deteriorated, Mowery testified, when Johnston found the couple changing  into  swimsuits  in  Annette’s  bedroom. Mowery said  Johnston had told him  he had ordered Todd  out of  the house  at that  time and that he didn’t  want anything  “like that”  going on under his roof.

Johnston also  told Mowery, although  they weren’t nudists,  “family members  did like  to take their clothes  off”  in  the  confines  of  their  home.     Johnston  denied  any   sexual  relationship  with      Annette,   but  admitted—over   defense  attorney Tyack’s objection  that it was  irrelevant—he did get  aroused when  Annette  was  there and  he was nude.

Johnston  told  him  that  he  just acted normally under those  circumstances. When asked  whether he became aroused, he said he “had to take care of it right away.”

In another  conversation, Johnston told  Mowery he had trouble  sleeping at night and  had visions of water and trees. Johnston said  he did not see the teenagers on the day they disappeared.

On Oct. 22, the Johnstons permitted authorities to search  their home.  In Annette’s  bedroom, Mowery found  a  pair  of  riding  boots,  several  guns, ammunition and  some military gear , which was said to  belong to  Johnston’s son,  Dale Ray—home  on leave from the service.

In  the  kitchen  of  the  mobile  home,  a set of “specialized” knives  was found. Sarah  was asked what  kind of  knives they  were. She  told Mowery they   were  butchering   knives.  Judge  Stilwell ordered this answer stricken  from the record, but that the question could be asked directly of Sarah when she testified.

On  cross-examination,  Mowery admitted  he hadn’t made any notes or  recordings of his conversations with  Dale  and  Sarah  Johnston.  Tyack asked him whether  he  could  accurately  recall  events  15 months later  and whether he  had been trained  to take  notes. Mowery  said he  had been  trained to take notes, but had not done so in this case.

The “interrogation” was not recorded, he said, but he   did  reconstruct   a  summary   at  a   later date—Sept. 27, 1983, 11 months after the original questioning of Dale and Sarah Johnston.

Tyack  told  the  Court  that  Johnston  had  been” interrogated” by the police  for six hours before consent was given for the search of the premises. Thompson testified on the  fourth day of the trial, stating  Johnston came  to the  police station, one week after  the torsos had  been found, to  discuss “psychic  visions” he  felt were  connected to  the murders.

“He said  he would close  his eyes and  see faces, and  he  thought  they  might  be  suspects in the case,”   Thompson  recalled.   Johnston  described visions of water and trees.

Thompson   said  these   visions  were   locations identical  to the  area near  the railroad trestle where the torsos had been discovered.

Thompson and Johnston  also discussed the family’s practice  of  nudity,  but  denied  ever  having a sexual relationship with  Annette. Johnston balked when asked if he had  ever masturbated in front of Annette.

“He sort of dropped  his head,” Thompson recalled, saying  Johnston told  him  he  had acted  in ways condemned in the Holy  Bible. Johnston said he had prostrate  trouble   and  that  when   he  had  an erection, he needed “immediate relief.”

Annette was  present once when  this happened, but it wasn’t  her that caused him  to become aroused, Thompson was told.

The  defense team  blasted police  handling of the case inferring Thompson had fabricated some of his testimony.

Tyack attacked Thompson over  whether a summary of his   Oct.  21   “interrogation”  had   ever  been prepared. Thompson said he  did write a summary of the conversation. Tyack countered that the 14-page summary  did  not  contain  any  references to the detective’s   testimony    regarding   nudity   or Johnston’s masturbation in Annette’s presence.

Under re-direct questioning,  Thompson testified he had  written more  than  one  summary and  that the contested  information was  to be  found in another document.  He said  these summaries  had been  made from notes of his conversation with Johnston.

Defense   attorneys   produced   a   transcript  of tape-recorded  conversations between  Dale Johnston and  Sheriff  Jim  Jones.  Jones,  who  had already testified,  was  recalled  to   the  stand  by  the prosecution.

The sheriff told the court that he had spoken with the defendant several times but had never recorded any  of the  conversations. He  was surprised that Johnston had recorded them.

Tyack asked  Jones, “Did Dale ask  you if there was any  information on  gunshots  in  the area  of the cornfield during the time the kids disappeared?”

Over  prosecution’s  objection,   he  read  Jones’s reply. “The  only ones we can  establish over there were in the early evening.”

Under  re-direct  questioning  by  prosecutor Mong, Jones  admitted  he  had  discussed  gunshots  with Johnston, but that the shots  had not been fired in the correct time frame—October 4^th or 5^th.

On  cross-examination Jones  testified there  was a burned area  in the cornfield about  200 yards from the gravesites that contained clothing. He said the ashes were sent to  BCI for analysis, which concluded the burned clothing did not have any bearing on the case.

During the  investigation at the  cornfield, he saw Mowery pick up a plastic  feedbag and then discard it as unimportant. Jones said he then picked it up, saw the stains and kept it as evidence.

According   to   Jones,   Mowery   quit  the  police department  about a  month after  the murders. Jones acknowledged  telling  Johnston  that  Mowery had to quit or he would have been fired.

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